2 relatives plead guilty in Los Zetas case

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Zulema Treviño and Alexandra Garcia Treviño Plead guilty in Zetas money laundering case

The niece and sister-in-law of the Zetas drug cartel's leader pleaded guilty Friday in a federal court to charges stemming from the criminal organization's money laundering scheme.

Zulema Treviño pleaded guilty to a money laundering conspiracy count, and Alexandra Garcia Treviño pleaded guilty to one count of misprision of a felony. Prosecutors recommended they receive probation.

Zulema Treviño is married to José Treviño Morales, the brother of Zetas leader Miguel Treviño Morales. Alexandra Garcia Treviño is her daughter.

Neither would comment after the hearing.

“It's a very difficult situation to be born into the family,” said Alexandra Treviño's lawyer, Frank Ivy. “She's doing the best she can.”

José and Miguel Treviño are also charged in the same indictment, which alleges that the Zetas laundered millions of dollars of drug money through the U.S. quarter horse industry. José Treviño has pleaded not guilty. His brother is a fugitive in Mexico

.U.S. agents last year raided ranches, houses and stables across the Southwest and charged 19 people in the alleged money laundering conspiracy.

The feds seized hundreds of horses, many of which were auctioned off in November. Julianna Holt, who with husband Peter Holt owns the largest stake in the Spurs franchise, purchased one of the animals.

Miguel Treviño, knownas “Z-40” ascended to the Zetas leadership in October. Along with money laundering and drug trafficking charges, he's wanted in Laredo on charges that he ordered five murders in the U.S. during 2005 and 2006.

American-Statesman Staff
By Jazmine Ulloa
In a winner’s circle photo of “Tempting Dash,” Alexandra Garcia Treviño and her brother stand with their father next to the prized race horse, using their hands to make the numbers “40” and “42.

The signs in the picture, law enforcement agents say, are nicknames for Miguel Angel Treviño Morales and Oscar Omar Treviño Morales, two top leaders of one of the most ruthless crime organizations in Mexico — and the young woman’s uncles.

Garcia Treviño and her mother, Zulema Treviño, have pleaded guilty to their roles in a scheme that federal investigators said was orchestrated by the Treviño brothers to launder millions of dollars in illicit drug proceeds for their violent Zetas cartel. But criminal defense attorneys said the women made their decisions to be able to raise their children.

Alexandra Garcia Treviño

Zulema Treviño pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to launder a monetary instrument, and Garcia Treviño entered a guilty plea to one count of failing to report a felony, according to plea agreements filed Friday in a U.S. district court in Austin. They were initially facing up to 20 years and three years in prison, respectively, but are now likely to receive probation, their attorneys said.

In all, 19 people have been indicted in the money-laundering conspiracy, and at least two are expected to go to trial — Francico Antonio Colorado Cessa and a third Treviño brother, Jose Treviño (Zulema Treviño’s husband and Garcia Treviño’s father), their attorneys said. The federal investigation that netted the majority of the defendants last summer led to raids at ranches, stables and homes in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

Court records show the Treviño men founded Tremor Enterprises in the United States to buy, train and breed quarter horses from a champion lineage, which they raced, winning some of the sport’s most prominent races. But the true purpose of the company was to launder millions of dollars in drug money for Mexican Zeta members and their associates, according to the filings.

Oscar Treviño was said to have worked for the gang in Mexico, and Zulema and Jose Treviño operated the gang’s quarter horse activities through various front companies in the United States, many operating in Lexington, Okla., records said.

Also arrested was Eusevio Maldonado Huitron, who, according to court documents, owns property in the Bastrop County community of Dale and has trained and boarded dozens of horses funded with drug proceeds.

In a transcript from a hearing on July 25, an FBI investigator told the court that an informant could place Francisco Colorado as an intermediary between the former governor of Veracruz, Fidel Herrera, and a deceased Zeta leader.

The money was paid through Colorado to the government of Veracruz to give the Zetas freedom to move their narcotics across the state and as a way to help Herrrera finance his gubernatorial campaign, the record said.

In an email to the American-Statesman, Herrera said the allegations were false. Colorado’s attorney, Mike DeGeurin, said his client was a well-respected businessman who owned a company that helped oil corporations with cleanup and drilling. Horses were his client’s hobby, DeGeurin said.

“It was quite a shock to Mr. Colorado, his friends and his business associates that he was roped into this,” he said.

In a plea agreement, Zulema Treviño admitted breeding and racing the horses and receiving money she knew stemmed from illegal activity. Her attorney, F. Clinton Broden, said she made the decision to raise two of her younger children.

Frank Ivy, her daughter’s attorney, said the only involvement Alexandra Garcia Treviño played in the case was that she worked for her father’s business in 2010 for three months before she was married. She is now pregnant, Ivy said.

Ivy said she risked being smeared if she had gone to trial.

“What the Zetas are doing in Mexico is violent and nasty, and that kind of evidence would harm anyone involved in the case,” ” the attorney said. “She was born into a very difficult situation.” San Antonio Express , Statesman